AQUARIUM

1 October 2020

The film Aquarium is about two people in a dark room who suddenly encounter something unknown—a light. Adrian is afraid of the unknown and ignores the change it brings. Lila, on the other hand, feels an indescribable fascination with it, wanting to explore and understand its background.

Creating the images for this I used an analog-sensored camera, modifying an old VHS camcorder that once belonged to my grandfather. Instead of recording to tape, we extracted the raw signal directly from the CCD sensor, feeding it into a laptop via a video capture card. This setup allowed us to bypass the compression and limitations of VHS while retaining the sensor’s unique way of capturing light.

The CCD sensor itself was crucial to the image. It captured light with a softness and texture that felt very nice to me. It translates it into something that feels to me both close and distant. There's a fluidity between past and present. For me, this was more than just a technical choice. It was about working with a visual language that resonates beyond the present moment. I tried to make the frames carry the imprint of past, past hands, and past light.

I painted and animated my storyboard in this video:

More Information about this project you can find on:
https://rise-jugendkultur.de/produktion/aquarium/
Rise funded and helped us with this movie and also recorded a little Interview with us:

Cast: Kiana Klysch, Detlef Neuhaus
Director & Production: Knut Kuhles
Production Management: Elena Luca Denfeld
Assistant Director: Oskar Lietz
Assistant Production Manager: Nicolas Müller
Continuity: Helena Koeppen
Cinematography: Aaron Klenke
Lighting: Dominik Ziegenhagel
Sound: Jan B. Meister
Sound Assistant: Erik Morten